Superintendent proposes adding teachers to 5th grade classes at Fiske

Wednesday

Mar 26, 2014 at 6:19 PMMar 27, 2014 at 5:24 PM

By Caitlyn Kelleher / ckelleher@wickedlocal.com

Superintendent of School Paul Ash is proposing adding part-time teachers to the fifth-grade classes next year at Fiske Elementary School as a way to solve a short-term overcrowding problem at the school.Ash presented his recommendation and three other options to the School Committee during Tuesday’s meeting. Ash proposed hiring four teachers on a part-time basis as a way to make the classes larger, but also adding an additional licensed teacher during the instruction periods and not reduce the amount of attention a student can get."It’s a true co-teaching relationship," Ash said. "They can differentiate instruction. It is actually a model used in private schools."Fiske school does not have enough rooms to break the group of students into four classes next year, unless the incoming kindergarten class is smaller then predicted.About 100 members of the community turned out for the meeting at Cary Memorial Building. The School Committee is not expected to take a vote on the matter until the middle of April.The part-time teachers would work four days a week from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. and all day on Thursday. Ash called the arrangement a true co-teaching arrangement, because students would be scheduled for specials – art, music and physical education – during the morning when the second teacher is not in the classroom."There are some teachers out there at the beginning of their career who would love to work in Lexington," Ash said.Ash said this option is more expensive then hiring just one teacher and putting an art or music teacher on a cart but that this is better academically for all students. Ash presented the idea of relocating an art or music class out of a room designed for that program and having the teacher move from classroom to classroom as they teach."This is disturbing to all of the students instead of just 90 students," Ash said.He said he could not recommend this plan of action to the School Committee because the educational aspects of music and art classes would be diminished.A number of parents expressed the desire to move either art or music into the library and move the library programming to a mobile cart.Ash also addressed the idea of redistricting students from school to school."You have to pick a particular geographic area and say those students are moving to a new school," Ash said. He said this won’t necessarily reduced the student population in the grades that are full."This is extremely disruptive. When you redistrict, it is important to me that it works for a long time," Ash said. "I am not confident if we move the district line that it would solve the problem for more than a year or two."Ash said if redistricting is discussed it would need to be part of the long-term discussion about student enrollment. The overcrowding issue is a problem in a number of schools and for the next several years.The fourth option Ash addressed was adding modular classrooms to Fiske. He said these would not be ready by fall so they can only be considered a long-term option. He expected adding classrooms would cost about $1.6 million.The School Committee asked Ash to provide more details about modular classrooms so the idea could be discussed for the upcoming years when the space shortage at Fiske is going to get more pronounced.